Ingenia

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"Ingenia" Fossil range: Late Cretaceous
Profile of "Ingenia" yanshini.
Conservation status
Extinct (fossil)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Sauropsida Superorder: Dinosauria Order: Saurischia Suborder: Theropoda Infraorder: Coelurosauria (unranked) Oviraptorosauria Family: Oviraptoridae Genus: "Ingenia" Species: "I." yanshini
Binomial name
"Ingenia" yanshini Barsbold, 1981

"Ingenia" (meaning "Ingeni one") was a 1.5-2 metre (5-6.5 feet) long and 25 kg (55lb) oviraptorid dinosaur that lived in southern Mongolia during the late Cretaceous Period, 80 million years ago. It belonged to the suborder Theropoda, and may have competed with its close relative, Oviraptor, for food and territory. Its diet is uncertain, though it was probably an omnivore, eating insects, eggs, shelled animals, small animals, roots and seeds, dead carcasses, and vegetation. "Ingenia", unlike Citipati, Rinchenia and other oviraptorids, had no head crest. It laid a total of 24 eggs a clutch and may have taken care of its eggs as Oviraptor and Citipati did. Its name, given to it in 1981, comes from its discovery site, the Ingeni-Khobur Depression in Mongolia. However, it was recently discovered that the name Ingenia is preoccupied by a genus of nematode (Gerlach, 1957), making the dinosaur's name invalid. A replacement name has yet to be assigned.

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